Today in History
3 February
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3 February |
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| 1014 King Sweyn of Denmark I died and was succeeded by his son, Canute II the Great; after King Ethelred II of England ordered a massacre of Danes in 1002, Sweyn invaded Britain and conquered much of the country. | ||
| 1194 Henry VI of Germany released King Richard I (the Lion-Heart) of England, captured during the Third Crusade. | ||
| 1377 Cardinal Robert of Geneva (anti-pope Clemens VII) starts term | ||
| 1377 Mass execution of population of Cesena Italy of population of Cesena Italy | ||
| 1399 English Prince John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, son of King Edward III and father of King Henry IV, died. | ||
| 1488 Bartholomeus Diaz discovers Mosselbaai (Angra dos Vaqueros) | ||
| 1547 Russian czar Ivan IV (17) marries Anastasia Romanova | ||
| 1576 Henry of Navarre (future Henry IV) escapes from Paris | ||
| 1591 German monarchy forms Protestant Union of Torgau | ||
| 1653 Cardinal Mazarin returns to Paris from exile | ||
| 1660 General Moncks army reaches London | ||
| 1690 1st paper money in America issued (colony of Mass) | ||
| 1740 Charles de Bourbon, King of Naples, invites Jews to return to Sicily | ||
| 1743 Philadelphia establishes a "pesthouse" to quarantine immigrants | ||
| 1752 Dutch States-General forbid export of windmills | ||
| 1781 Dutch West Indies island of St Eustatia taken by British | ||
| 1783 Spain recognizes US independence | ||
| 1807 Montevideo was taken by British forces led by Sir Samuel Auchmuty. | ||
| 1809 Illinois Territory, including present-day Wisconsin, was established. | ||
| 1815 World's 1st commercial cheese factory established, in Switzerland | ||
| 1825 Dutch North Sea coast floods | ||
| 1860 Thomas Clemson takes office as 1st US superintendent of agriculture | ||
| 1864 Sherman's march through Mississippi | ||
| 1867 Prince Mutsuhito, 14, becomes Emperor Meiji of Japan (1867-1912) | ||
| 1867 Prince Mutsuhito became Emperor Meiji of Japan at the age of 14 and reigned until 1912. | ||
| 1870 15th Amendment (Black suffrage) passed | ||
| 1892 Russia closes down Yeshiva of Volozhin | ||
| 1894 1st US steel sailing vessel, Dirigo, launched, Bath, Me | ||
| 1903 Frederick Lugard occupies Kano West Africa | ||
| 1913 The 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, giving the government the power to impose and collect taxes on income. | ||
| 1915 Turkish & German army reach Suez Canal | ||
| 1916 Canada's original Parliament buildings, in Ottawa, burns down | ||
| 1916 Tristan Tzar publishes Dada-manifest in Zurich Switzerland | ||
| 1917 US liner Housatonic sunk by German sub & diplomatic relations severed | ||
| 1917 The United States broke off diplomatic relations with Germany after Berlin announced a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare. | ||
| 1919 The first meeting of the League of Nations took place in Paris. | ||
| 1919 Kiev was captured by the Bolsheviks | ||
| 1929 Revolutionary Socialist Party forms in Amsterdam | ||
| 1930 Vietnamese Communistic Party forms | ||
| 1942 1st Japanese air raid on Java | ||
| 1943 4 chaplains drown after giving up their life jackets to others | ||
| 1945 Almost 1000 Flying Fortresses drop 3000 ton bombs on Berlin | ||
| 1945 U.S. aircraft dropped 3,000 tons of explosives on Berlin. | ||
| 1950 Nuclear physicist Klaus Fuchs arrested on spy charges | ||
| 1954 Queen Elizabeth II arrived in Australia for the first visit by a reigning monarch. | ||
| 1958 The Benelux Economic Union Treaty between Belgium, Luxembourg and Netherlands was signed. | ||
| 1959 Singers Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and the Big Bopper were killed in a plane crash in the United States. | ||
| 1960 British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan foreshadowed the decolonization of Africa, telling the South African parliament: "The wind of change is blowing through the continent." | ||
| 1962 Pres Kennedy bans all trade with Cuba except for food & drugs | ||
| 1965 105 USAF cadets resigned for cheating on exams | ||
| 1966 1st operational weather satellite, ESSA-1 launched US | ||
| 1966 The first controlled landing on the moon was made by the Soviet unmanned spacecraft Luna IX. | ||
| 1969 The Palestine National Congress appointed Yasser Arafat head of the Palestine Liberation Organization. | ||
| 1972 11th Winter Olympic games opens in Sapporo, Japan (1st in Asia) | ||
| 1973 President Nixon signs Endangered Species Act into law | ||
| 1977 The chairman of the Provisional Military Government in Ethiopia, Brig-Gen Teferi Benti, and his closest associates were executed by supporters of Mengistu Haile Mariam. | ||
| 1978 The European Economic Community and China initialled their first trade agreement. | ||
| 1980 Mohammed Ali tours Africa as Pres Carter's envoy | ||
| 1981 Gro Harlem Brundtland was elected Norway's first woman prime minister following the resignation of Odvar Nordli. | ||
| 1986 Pres Reagan announces formation of Comm on Challenger Accident | ||
| 1989 Military coup overthrows Alfredo Stroessner, dictator of Paraguay | ||
| 1992 Argentine President Carlos Menem signed a decree opening all files on Nazis who fled to South America after World War II. | ||
| 1994 President Bill Clinton announced the lifting of the U.S. trade embargo against Vietnam, marking a dramatic shift in relations chilled for decades by war and postwar hostility. | ||
| 1994 President Boris Yeltsin signed a treaty with Georgia reasserting Russia's military influence in the former Soviet republic. | ||
| 1994 The International Court of Justice, in a ruling on a 20-year border dispute, rejected Libya's claim to a huge swathe of neighboring Chad's territory. | ||
| 1997 Bohumil Hrabal, Czech author of "Closely Observed Trains," fell to his death from the fifth floor of a Prague hospital where he was being treated for arthritis. | ||
| 1998 Britain issues a set of Princess Diana stamps | ||
| 1998 US military plane clips cable car lines in northern Italy, kills 20 year-old father of her baby | ||